Arrest History in Clarke County
Clarke County arrests may be made by the Sheriff's Department, Jackson Police, Thomasville Police, Grove Hill Police, Coffeeville Police, or an Alabama state agency. Each arresting agency creates its own incident or arrest report. If the person enters Clarke County Jail, jail staff create a separate booking and custody record. The court then creates probable-cause, bond, and charging entries when a case is filed.
A Clarke County arrest history can therefore span several custodians. The arrest report records the law-enforcement event. The booking entry records intake and custody. A later court file shows whether prosecutors filed a charge and how the court resolved it. ALEA may connect a fingerprint-supported arrest cycle to a reported disposition, but the state record is not a substitute for the underlying local files.
Call Clarke County Jail First
For recent or pretrial custody, call Clarke County Jail at 251-275-8156. The jail is at 149 Clark Street in Grove Hill and can hold up to 200 people. Ask whether the person is in custody and whether staff can confirm the booking number, booking date, arresting agency, charges, bond, holds, next court, or release status. The county publishes no official online jail roster, so a direct call is the verified first route.
The Clarke County Sheriff's Department operates the jail. Its official page does not publish a separate records manager, jail search, request form, report-copy fee, or response estimate. Confirm the right custodian and current procedure by phone before sending personal details or visiting.
Clarke Sheriff and Jail
Sheriff: 114 Court Street
Jail: 149 Clark Street
Grove Hill, AL 36451
Sheriff 251-275-4254
Jail 251-275-8156
Call first for custody information, available records, fees, identification rules, and counter access.
How to Look Up Clarke County Arrests
No one portal provides a complete Clarke County arrest lookup. Start with the channel closest to the event, then follow the record into the court or state system. A name, date of birth, approximate arrest date, arresting agency, incident number, booking number, warrant number, or court case number can narrow the request.
- Call Clarke County Jail for recent custody and jail-created booking facts. For a city arrest that did not reach the county jail, contact the police department that made it.
- Request the incident or arrest report from the arresting agency. Ask which parts are public, what identification is needed, and whether a fee applies.
- Search Just One Look or contact the issuing municipal court or Clarke Circuit Clerk to find filed charges and the case outcome.
- For a review of one's own statewide fingerprint-supported history, submit the official ALEA Form 46 with fingerprints, identification, and the required payment.
- If informal access fails, send a narrow written request by hand or mail to the correct custodian. Describe the existing record, event date, agency, and desired format.
Note: Clarke County has no verified sheriff app or public booking portal, so third-party arrest lists are not official county sources.
Clarke County Uniform Arrest Reports
Alabama's Uniform Arrest Report has five parts: arrestee identification, arrest details, vehicles and seized items, juvenile information, and release. The paper form uses a 12-digit agency case number and a nine-digit ORI, which identifies the reporting agency. It allows up to four charges and includes release choices such as Held, Bail, Released, TOT-LE, and Other. TOT-LE means the person was turned over to another law-enforcement agency.
The official Alabama arrest-report rule documents the required form structure and identifiers.
Those fields help distinguish the arresting agency's report from the jail booking and later court file. They also give a requester precise numbers to cite when records from several Clarke County offices must be matched.
What an Arrest Record Shows
A Clarke County arrest record may include the event, legal basis, alleged offenses, and release decision. Jail data add intake and custody fields. Some items can be restricted because they identify a juvenile, victim, protected person, or active investigative detail. Clarke County has not published a general policy promising public release of booking photographs, so availability must be confirmed with the custodian.
| Booking Number | A jail identifier used to locate a specific intake and custody period. |
|---|---|
| Booking Date & Time | When the person entered jail processing, which may differ from arrest time. |
| Arresting Agency | The sheriff, city police, or state agency that created the arrest report. |
| Charges | Alleged offenses recorded at arrest or intake; later filed charges may differ. |
| Bond | Release terms, amount, type, or a hold that prevents release. |
| Booking Photo | Created during intake; no countywide public-release rule or gallery is published. |
| Release Status | Held, bail, released, transfer to another agency, or another recorded outcome. |
Ask for the final release field and any court reference when the purpose is to trace what happened next. The initial charge list may change once prosecutors review the event, so the matching Clarke County court disposition is essential context.
Four Clarke County Record Keepers
The arresting agency, jail, court, and ALEA answer different questions. Jackson Police keeps a Jackson incident or arrest report, while Clarke County Jail keeps the booking if the person was admitted there. A municipal clerk or the Clarke Circuit Clerk keeps the prosecution record. ALEA's Criminal Records Identification Unit maintains fingerprint-associated statewide criminal-history information and receives later dispositions.
This split matters when one source looks incomplete. A jail release does not reveal whether a prosecutor filed a case. A court dismissal does not erase the agency's original report by itself. A state CHRI may lag until identifiers and dispositions are matched. Compare the exact arrest date, agency case number, ORI, booking number, and court case number before deciding two records describe the same event.
For city records, Jackson Police lists 350 Commerce Street and 251-246-4484. Thomasville Police routes requests through its city channels at 559 West Front Street North, and Grove Hill uses the municipal complex at 111 South Church Street. Coffeeville Police records remain with the town. None of these agencies feeds a verified shared Clarke County report portal, so direct agency contact is part of the search.
Recent Arrests and Booking Logs
No official Clarke County daily arrest blotter or recent-booking page was found. The Sheriff also has no verified mobile app with a booking feature. For a recent event, contact the arresting agency for its report, call the jail for current custody, and check the correct court for a filed case. A precise public-record request is the fallback when staff cannot provide the record informally.
VINELink may supplement custody-status notification where participating agencies provide data.
VINELink is not a Clarke County arrest report, court docket, or complete booking archive. A missing entry does not prove that no arrest or custody event occurred.
Clarke County Custody Search Boundaries
Clarke County Jail, the Alabama Department of Corrections, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons hold different populations. The county jail covers local pretrial and short-term custody. ADOC Inmate Search covers current state prison custody and does not replace a jail call. The federal locator covers federal custody and cannot find someone held only by Clarke County or Alabama.
The BOP Inmate Locator accepts federal identifiers or a name with optional demographic filters.
Use it only when federal custody is plausible. For Clarke County custody, return to the jail phone line; for state prison custody, use the official ADOC locator.
Request Clarke County Incident Records
The Clarke Sheriff has no posted request portal, email, fax, fee schedule, or records-counter hours. Call 251-275-4254 to confirm the custodian, available record, fee, identification rule, and delivery method. A written request may be hand-delivered to 114 Court Street or mailed to Clarke County Sheriff, P.O. Box 913, Grove Hill, AL 36451. The Alabama Attorney General's forms page links a model open-records request form, but the request still goes to the Clarke custodian. Name the report type, date, location, agency, incident number, and copy format.
Alabama Code Sections 36-12-43 through 36-12-45 provide the request framework for covered local custodians. A proper standard request is generally acknowledged within 10 business days, with a substantive response due within 15 business days after acknowledgement, subject to lawful extensions. A request taking more than eight staff hours follows the longer time-intensive track. These deadlines do not govern the Circuit Clerk's judicial files.
Police and crash reports stay with the agency that created them. Jackson, Thomasville, Grove Hill, and Coffeeville have their own local channels. ALEA handles eligible state crash reports and lists a $15 charge. Its process is separate from a general arrest report.
The ALEA crash-report page explains the official fee and access limits.
The source shows why the correct report type matters: a crash report, an incident report, a booking record, and a court file are not interchangeable.
Correct a Clarke County Arrest Cycle
A person reviewing their own Alabama CHRI can use ALEA Form 46 to challenge an inaccurate or incomplete Clarke County arrest cycle. The challenge must identify each disputed arrest or disposition, explain the claimed error, state the believed-correct information, and name the source agency or court. Official court proof, such as a certified disposition, helps ALEA check the report against the originating record.
The challenge must be returned within one year of the date ALEA supplied the CHRI. Processing may take longer than the ordinary record-review period because ALEA must contact the agency or court that sent the data. Correcting a CHRI does not rewrite the separate Clarke County incident report or court file; each custodian must address its own record.
Arrests vs Convictions
An arrest records a law-enforcement action and may lead to booking. A conviction exists only when a court enters a judgment of guilt after a plea or adjudication. Charges may be declined, changed, dismissed, nolle prossed, or resolved by a not-guilty finding. Read the final court disposition rather than treating a Clarke County arrest entry as the result.
| Arrest Record | Conviction Record |
|---|---|
| Created by an arresting agency and often paired with jail booking data | Created by the court through a judgment and disposition |
| Shows that an arrest or booking was recorded | Shows that the court entered a finding of guilt |
| Lives with the agency, jail, and fingerprint-supported repository cycle | Lives in the clerk's case file and may be reported to ALEA |
| May be followed by release, no filed charge, dismissal, or acquittal | May be followed by sentence, appeal, probation, or qualifying expungement |
Note: A Clarke County arrest is not proof of guilt, and the alleged arrest charges may differ from charges later filed.